An outpost with pickets was set on the southern side of the river, both grand and camp guards were put out also on the side we occupied, and the men soon had their supper and went to rest.

Late in the evening a panic-stricken countryman came in with the news that General Wise was moving down upon us with 4000 men.
The man was evidently in earnest, and was a loyal one.

He believed every word he said, but he had in fact seen only a few of the enemy's horsemen who were scouting toward us, and believed their statement that an army was at their back.

It was our initiation into an experience of rumors that was to continue as long as the war.

We were to get them daily and almost hourly; sometimes with a little foundation of fact, sometimes with none; rarely purposely deceptive, but always grossly exaggerated, making chimeras with which a commanding officer had to wage a more incessant warfare than with the substantial enemy in his front.